William Schafer facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
William Schafer
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| Born |
William Ronald Schafer
August 29, 1964 |
| Nationality | American, British |
| Education | Lakeside High School, DeKalb County, Georgia, United States |
| Alma mater | Harvard University (AB Biology, 1986); University of California, Berkeley (PhD Biochemistry, 1991) |
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | Protein prenylation in saccharomyces cervesiae' (1990) |
| Doctoral advisor | Jasper Rine |
William Ronald Schafer (born August 29, 1964) is a top scientist who studies the brain and genes. He is known as a Neuroscientist and a Geneticist. His work helps us understand how our bodies and brains control what we do.
Dr. Schafer mostly studies a tiny worm called C. elegans. He uses many different science tools to see how small groups of brain cells, called neurons, make the worm move and behave. He also helped create new ways to study the brain. These include using light to see brain activity (called optogenetic neuroimaging) and using computers to watch and measure how animals behave. These methods are now used by many other brain scientists.
He has made important discoveries about how brain cells receive signals. He also found out how different parts of the brain talk to each other. More recently, he has used ideas from network science to study how simple brain connections work. His goal is to learn how bigger brains, like ours, might also work. He is a member of important science groups, including the EMBO and the Royal Society.
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William Schafer's Career Journey
William Schafer started his science training at the University of California, Berkeley. He studied genes and how living things work at a tiny level. For his PhD, he worked with Jasper Rine. During this time, he found out that certain proteins in yeast (a type of fungus) need a special tag to work correctly. This tag helps them get to the right place in the cell.
After his PhD, he did more research with Cynthia Kenyon. This is called a "postdoc" and it's when scientists get more experience after their main studies. He discovered that a chemical called dopamine slows down the movement of the C. elegans worm. He also found a special gene that affects how the worm reacts to dopamine.
In 1995, he became a professor at the University of California, San Diego. In 2001, he won a special award called the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. This award is given to young scientists who show great promise.
Later, in 2006, he moved his research team to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. In 2020, he was chosen to be a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a very high honor for scientists in the UK. In 2019, he also became a part-time professor at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.
How Does Dr. Schafer Study Brains?
Dr. Schafer's lab uses cool methods to understand how brains work. Here are some of them:
Seeing Brain Activity with Light
Scientists developed special tools in 1997 that could light up when brain cells were active. These are called genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs). But they were hard to use in living animals. In 2000, Dr. Schafer and his student Rex Kerr found a way to use a GECI called yellow cameleon 2. They used it to see activity in the muscles and single brain cells of worms. This was the first time anyone used a light-based sensor to watch brain activity in a living animal!
Using this method, Dr. Schafer's team has studied many different brain cells in the worm. They looked at cells that sense touch, chemicals, and even pain. They found that certain molecules, like TMCs and TRP channels, are important for sensing things in these cells. His group also learned that TMC channels, which help us hear, work in a special way inside the cell, not just by feeling force on the cell's outer layer.
Watching Worms with Computers
Dr. Schafer's team also invented ways to use computers and cameras to watch how worms behave. They used a special microscope that could follow a worm for many hours. This helped them measure when the worms laid eggs. These experiments showed that worms change how they behave based on a chemical called serotonin.
They later used even more advanced worm trackers. These trackers could collect lots of information about other behaviors, like how the worms move. This computer-based method is very helpful for scientists to see exactly how different genes affect the nervous system.
Mapping Brain Connections
Dr. Schafer has also worked with other scientists to study the "connectome" of the C. elegans worm. A connectome is like a map of all the connections between brain cells. He realized that some brain signals, called neuromodulatory signals, work differently. They are like a "wireless" network that runs alongside the main "wired" connections. He thought that both networks could be studied together.
In 2023, his lab published the first map of the worm's neuropeptide connectome. This was the first "wireless" brain map for any living thing! Working with another group, his team also tested an idea that uses math to predict how brain cells will work based on their connections. This helps us understand how complex brain networks control behavior.
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William Ronald Schafer, a neuroscientist and geneticist.
